MANAGED SERVICES cloud
Clients need to be able to assess the comparative strengths and advantages of a private cloud deployment, public cloud deployment, or a hybrid combination. In doing so, concerns about control and security make a lot of companies consider opting for private cloud deployments. However the fact is that each model has its benefits.
That said, at IBM we see cloud as a ‘how’, not a ‘what’; deciding on which cloud option to go for requires a flexible approach. Where the customer starts its Cloud journey and how it deploys Cloud depends on what its business needs are, not on the model – public, private or hybrid. IBM works with clients to determine the business need as well as to achieve better, more agile IT, applying the transformative power of cloud computing to reinvent the way clients do business.
All too often the industry conversation focuses on the distinctions between and among public, private and hybrid clouds. We believe that this starts the conversation in the wrong place. It would be much better to consider the following topics instead: £ Whether cloud resources are dedicated to serving the needs of a single client or are shared among multiple tenants
£ Whether the cloud resources are on-premise or off-premise
We believe that these distinctions lead to far better thinking about the growing use of cloud computing. Dedicated or Shared
Cloud computing can be hosted on systems assigned to a single client or shared among many tenants. The proper selection of how computing, networking and storage resources are assigned makes it possible to achieve necessary levels of performance, reliability and management control.
On-premise or off-premise Many of the principles, and technology, behind cloud computing can be utilized for both on-premise, in-our-own-data-center workloads and for workloads hosted in the data center of a cloud services provider. Companies needing to get the best utilization of their own systems, software, networks and storage would be wise to start by breaking through their internal silos and starting to use their assets as on- premise clouds.
This approach should allow resources to be used more efficiently, allow less IT resources to sit idle and, in all likelihood, should reduce the need to add new systems, software licenses or storage to a company’s portfolio.
If a workload requires more computing resources than are currently available, it could then be wise to consider using the resources offered by an external cloud services provider. Only if this need persists would it be necessary to go through the process of purchasing more systems, software licenses, storage and hire additional staff.
The Hybrid Cloud seems to be everyone’s favourite choice. Why is this so, and are there any downside’s to this approach?
Hybrid cloud solutions are popular due to fact that they are a flexible way of maximizing the utilization of existing assets while leveraging Cloud technologies to meet ongoing needs best. Many organizations have heritage IT that they need to be integrated and full cloudifcation is not possible (yet). Secondly many companies prefer to migrate to the Cloud in a managed and controlled manner rather than risk attempting to shift their full workload to the Cloud in one go. And last but not least many IT departments want to retain some control.
However as stated earlier, we maintain that the most important factor is the business need and that hybrid which is currently deployed in a lot of cases is the best and indeed most flexible way to meet this. Besides, for most companies not all their workloads are suitable for Public Cloud or indeed ready for it either. As some workloads do move to Public Cloud, Hybrid Cloud becomes the natural outcome with integration between Public Cloud and Private Cloud or on premise being the consequent requirement. The evolution of technologies such as IBM CastIron are making such integration feasible which increases the attraction and practical application of Hybrid Cloud.
We would also suggest that if both dedicated and shared resources are available options in an off premise solution, then the optimization and flexibility around hybrid use cases are far simpler as the data locality issues go away. Furthermore, the security model is simpler to manage. Decision-makers would be wise to evaluate the options for each of their workloads rather than deploying one option everywhere. A more interesting debate is the evolution from IaaS to PaaS and SaaS. The true value of cloud computing is beyond the infrastructure layer and will come from software as a service or business process as a service solutions. Interestingly enough we see small and medium sized enterprises moving more quickly to full public cloud adoption versus larger enterprises. That is also why IBM is investing heavily not only in a portfolio of Cloud solutions for its larger Enterprise clients, but also in the development of both a Cloud portfolio that is optimized to support midsized business and of its channel to enable local Service Providers to help these SMB clients make the transition.
Do you see a role for Community Clouds (ie offerings for particular industries/groups) developing over time?
Yes, industry or community cloud will emerge especially with the rise of business process as a service (BPaaS) . Two recent examples of companies already operating in this space that I have seen are Monetize or Bison. £ Monetize offers a cloud based platform utilizing IBM technology that currently caters over 466 million Visa accounts, with 3.000+ member banks across 36 countries.
£ Bison offers small / micro retailers the opportunity to run their business applications in the cloud enabling significant cost savings and faster deployments.
Do you see Managed Services and Cloud services as synonymous, or are there subtle, or glaring, differences?
They are largely synonymous, and we should not get hung up with such terms anyway, it is more about a service that you license and consume via the cloud.
Indeed, do you think the whole Cloud/Managed Services vocabulary is clear and helpful to end users, or would some kind of agreed industry definitions be welcome?
The market is confusing itself with too many abbreviations, and subtle definitions. In my view we should look at business impact rather than wordings.
What are your thoughts on the advantages/disadvantages offered by all the different ICT sectors when it comes to their Cloud/Managed Services offerings?
Each different provider is coming from a different starting point, with a different heritage, different skills and capabilities and different
Winter 2013 I
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